Advanced energy employed 3.5 million Americans in 2018, and just over two-thirds of the jobs were in energy efficiency, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) reported last week.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed renewable energy and energy efficiency vastly outpacing the million jobs in coal, oil, and gas, AEE reports. [Those would be the jobs the fossil industry hasn’t managed to ‘de-man’ yet—Ed.] Advanced energy also “employs more U.S. workers than retail stores (three million), [and] twice as many as hotels and motels (1.7 million),” the AEE release states.
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“Advanced energy is a significant growth industry,” said AEE CEO Nat Kreamer. “From energy efficiency to electric vehicles, the technologies and services that constitute advanced energy are creating jobs and helping the U.S. economy expand.” And “as long as advanced energy products are allowed to compete on performance and price, we can keep this economic driver going.”
AEE’s research showed the fastest growth in advanced vehicles, at 15%, to 253,000 jobs. Within that category, employment in plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles grew 25%, compared to 10% in hybrids. Energy storage employment grew 14%, to 74,500. AEE’s definition of “advanced energy” combines high-efficiency natural gas and nuclear with solar, wind, and hydro. In that category, the 695,000 jobs represented a 1% drop from 2017, with solar down 4%, wind up 4%, and combined-cycle gas jobs up 7%. Employment in advanced fuels, including corn ethanol, biofuels, biomass, and nuclear fuels, increased 11%, to 116,000.
